Serial entrepreneur Shama Zehra, has just announced the launch of her app, Jetzy, along with its Kickstarter campaign.
Jetzy connects people who love to travel and experience life to the fullest. However, for the serial entrepreneur, her journey towards changing the social-travel game didn't have the most traditional route.
In addition to being one of the youngest female entrepreneurs in Pakistan, Shama has also had an impressive career in the financial industry, working for big names such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Shama's last stint in finance was the CEO and founder of Aligned Independent Advisors, a boutique independent advisory firm on Wall Street. While, the finance arena is infamously male dominated, Shama has managed to take on strong leadership roles within the market with strength and poise.
During the years, Shama hasn't only been making waves in the finance field; she has also focused on developing new businesses in the technology, fashion and finance world. Shama's stories have been published by Forbes Entrepreneurs, Crain's magazine, Nasdaq, etc., and recognized on a global platform for her work as an entrepreneur. This knack for entrepreneurship actually started early on in Shama's career, when she started her first business as a teenager. Together with her mother and sister, Shama launched a clothing company out of their family's apartment. Soon, the company opened its own factory and eventually a flagship store, 3 sales channels and pop-up shops at five-star hotels around Pakistan. Really sinking her teeth into running a business, led to a career in finance to trying her hand in different industries. However, even with all of her entrepreneurial accolades to her name, Shama had still yet to tap into one of her true passions; travel. In 2014, she was looking for a tool that would help people build more meaningful connections along their journey. This is when she met Ty Sawyer, a veteran in the traveling world and together they launched Jetzy, a social app designed to enrich people's travel experience by connecting them with other travelers and locals in their locations, as per their interests: Food, Culture, Hiking, Beach, etc.; with Jetzy's newest features "shoutouts" that launched today, members can post shout outs to the entire Jetzy community and ask questions real time.
Jetzy may be one of the newest additions to Shama's growing accolades, but it is one that fits in with the entrepreneur's long-time goals, dreams and passions. Shama is a frequent traveler and likes to live life to the fullest. She is passionate about helping people, especially in their careers. During her work in her MBA program, she was a career counselor. At Jetzy, she gets to coach women and train the company's interns regularly.
As the company grows, Shama is looking to start a charity that will create new opportunities for women and children, as a way to help women stand-up for themselves. Jetzy just fits in well with her bigger plan to help others. "I am a woman from Pakistan." She states, "If I can do it, you can do it too."